Just another Manic Monday…

so it’s time for my Much Love of the week.

I’m having a work Much Love… I never thought I would say this again, but I’ve got a lot to do. Not too much, but sufficient that I’m waking up early thinking about work and I’ve had a few days where I’ve started before seven in the morning. You might think being a crazy workaholic is not cause for Much Love, but it is.

I l♥ve my work.

I l♥ve writing content. At the moment, I’m working on a pretty big website and I learn so much new stuff. Plus, I’ve found lots of great cycle routes in the Charente and I just can’t wait for a bit of time and nice weather in order to try them out.

I l♥ve the variety that writing different content brings. Writing about honey one day, bikes the next, language the next, Curley’s wife another day, breathalysers and all sorts on other days… Never get a boring day!

I l♥ve writing because I need to read to be able to do it. I love researching and it always gets me excited to try new stuff and fills me with new ideas.

I l♥ve teaching because it’s the same variety… teaching reading in English one day, reading in French another, GCSE, A level, English as a foreign language, French as a foreign language, French grammar, the origins of the English Language, Creative Writing and then American English another day. I go from The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to Les Chevaliers d’Emeraude to Of Mice and Men to poetry to discussions about what the Daily Mail thinks give you cancer to discussions about why the French don’t stick their tongue out like the Spanish do to formulating the futur anterieur tense and discussing why the English use the simple past in speech and the French don’t to re-reading Carl Sandburg’s beautiful poem about fog in San Francisco to filling in American Customs documents the next. With a little detour around why we have three words for some stuff in English, describing the beauty of snow, pondering why little sisters are often naughty, making stuff out of fimo as a way to teach the interrogative and imperative in English and thinking about Valentine poems. Whew. Plus, just so you know, the US custom form is REALLY difficult to understand. What the hell are ‘monetary instruments’?! (stocks and shares, coins, notes, cheques, banker’s cheques, traveler’s cheques… I looked it up)

I l♥ve Steve’s ‘muse bouches. He’s not a bad cook. Four years of living with me will do that to a person. Not because I’m a crap cook and he has to fill in, but because I set a high standard and I make it look easy. Except for the sweat and the swearing. I taught him to love the bruschetta and the crostini, the Port Salut and the goats’ cheese. Sadly, I didn’t teach him to love Roquefort. Personally, I don’t Much Love it either. Poor Roquefort.

I l♥ve sleeping dogs. You should definitely let them lie.

I have l♥ved watching Life on Mars. Never saw it first time round. Is it wrong I have a crush on Gene Hunt? I like rude, chauvinistic older men obviously. Working in teaching will do that to a girl. It explains my crush on Sean Bean too.

I l♥ve my sister as I explained yesterday and  I l♥ve that I can make her smile.

I l♥ve that my mum sometimes sends me risqué emails and I I l♥ve that she’s being my secretary during the marking period.

I l♥ve the new GCSE paper. I don’t know if I’m good at marking it yet (won’t find out until they grade us in March!!) but I passed the script test of 12 papers with flying colours. I’m not loving the things they say about Curley’s Wife. Seriously. She’s a slag??! Really??! And from an Anglo-Saxon girls’ school, most of the comments they make sound as if they strongly disapprove of any married woman talking to any man who is not their husband and make-up means you’re a slag and if you wear nice clothes, you’re a slag. Or a ‘floozie’ as one girl put it. It sounds almost like living in Saudi Arabia. The slut walk girls would be ashamed. The amount of girls writing ‘she got what she deserved’ (she is strangled by a simpleton) is outrageous. In this day and age??! Next they’ll want girls stoned for looking at a man. Ladies, listen to Unpretty by TLC and tell me Curley’s Wife doesn’t feel that way too… she might be mean to Crooks and Candy and Lennie, but life ain’t exactly peachy for her.

I l♥ve tea at the moment, from my Head Gardeners mug, bought for me as a gift by the lovely Joanne. Steve says it sounds like I garden heads. Maybe I will.

I l♥ve that my peas and aubergines have put up little leaves. More planting needed next week. Apparently, I should have planted my peppers and chilis this week. Oh well.

I l♥ve that the days are getting longer. The weather might not be very nice, but that’s fine. It’s work weather. The nice stuff can wait til I’m finished.

I l♥ve the E. L’Eclerc sale. I got a jumper for 6€ and new underwear. This is exciting to me. If you know France, you’ll know nice woolly jumpers for 6€ are almost unheard of. I also bought Steve a little box. It was 2.50€ and had a lizard on it. He is the lizard king.

I l♥ve this lady, Belinda Fireman. Not only does she have totally cool glasses and THE BEST NAME EVER but she does the most inspiring pictures. I’ve done a tribute which I will photograph and post.

I l♥ve that my sister has received her gifts and I can now post photos of the crafty stuff I was doing over Christmas.

I made these little bird boxes by hand and then I decorated them! Super Kawaii!

I believe these are the wrong way round!

This song was one of the songs my sister had at her wedding. I think it’s cute. I did a little series, what with that and the one I did for my dad and step-mum. It then became this:

Ten Storey Love Song... I built this love for you...

That’s just reminded me, I haven’t put the pictures on of the ones I did for Steve and Jake. I like the one I did for Steve’s birthday.

Just as an artistic aside, Jake won first prize in the La Rochette Association of Culture and Lecture (reading, not being lectured!) for designing their new logo and emblem. I’ll be sure to post it when I have something to scan. Of course, the design is with them.

That’s just reminded me… I can now post all the pictures I drew on my Christmas cards… but that’s a post for another day. This one is long. Work is buzzing through my veins like Red Bull and Haribo Sours. Ironic I should have entitled this post Just Another Manic Monday. Maybe I should have gone for Rainy days and Mondays. Mondays feature in only three songs I can think of – and none of them are good.